Newly acquired outfielder Carlos Beltran didn’t do much in his debut with the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants Thursday, but they won anyway. The Giants now head to Cincinnati for the opener of a three-game series Friday night with the struggling Reds (7:10 pm Eastern). Bookmaker has set the line at Reds -110

San Francisco just took two of three games from the Phillies in Philadelphia, even though they scored a total of just eight runs in the series. So heading into this series the Giants, winners of 13 of their last 18 games, lead the NL West by four games over the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks.

Beltran went 0-4 Thursday night, but the Giants beat Philly anyway 4-1.

Cincy, meanwhile, just got swept four games at home by the New York Mets, losing 10-9 Thursday afternoon. So the Reds, who are just 8-15 this month, sit in fourth place in the NL Central, 6.5 games back of the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers.

Ryan Vogelsong (8-1, 2.10), who would lead the NL in ERA if he had one more inning pitched, will start for the Giants Friday night against Dontrelle Willis (0-1, 3.71) for Cincinnati. As of Friday morning BetOnline.com is listing the Reds as -109 favorites for Friday night’s game, with an over/under of 8.5.

Vogelsong, who spent the last four seasons playing in Japan and in the minors, is 13-for-16 on quality starts this year for San Fran. Over his last four starts Vogelsong has allowed just six earned runs on 25 hits in 25 1/3 IP. The Giants are 11-5 in Vogelsong’s starts this year, with the O/Us going 4-12.

Vogelsong has started once vs. the Reds this season, allowing two ER on eight hits in six innings of a 3-2 San Francisco victory back in June.

Reclamation project Willis is one-for-three in quality starts this year. In those three starts lefty Willis has given up seven ER on 16 hits and eight walks in 17 IP. The Reds are 1-2 in Willis’ starts, and all three of his starts have played under the totals.

Willis hasn’t pitched against the Giants since 2007.

San Fran is 29-26 on the road this season, while Cincinnati is 27-27 at home.

The Giants are also 20-8 in games in which their opponents have started left-handed pitchers this season.

In the first encounter between these two teams this year the Reds split four games out in San Francisco back in June. Three of those games played under the totals.

The over/unders are 41-58 in Giants games this season, 56-45 in Reds games and 31-20 in games played at Great American Ballpark.

As for Friday’s game Vogelsong and the Giants have been on a bit of a roll, so we’ll go with San Francisco to open this series with a win.